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AT&T drops Nokia Lumia 1020 contract price to $199 (US)

AT&T has reduced the price of the on contract of the Nokia Lumia 1020 to $199. The imaging centric smartphone previously cost $299 on a two year contract. In a similar way, the off contract price has been also reduced from $659.99 (£420) to $609.99 (£390). The price reduction comes just over five weeks after the Lumia 1020 first went on sale with AT&T.

As we noted previously, some US reviewers expressed concern about the Nokia Lumia 1020's original price point:

The price, in the context of the US market, also raises a few eyebrows, and it is clear that a number of reviewers feel that Windows Phone and its related ecosystem is holding the device back.

The reduction in the on contract price should address this complaint. The $199 price point is considered the standard entry price for a high end smartphone on a two year contract in the US. The Lumia 1020, with its 32GB of on board memory, now looks good value next to some of the other handsets at the $199 price point.

The relatively rapid price reduction will cause some questions to be asked about sales levels, but it's not than unusual to see a cut in price early on in the sales life of the phone. Moreover, bearing in mind the off contract pricing, the original price likely reflected the premium that AT&T felt that it could charge for a phone with very strong imaging capabilities and that was globally exclusive to AT&T.